


Be Alright

by SummerRaine14



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Based on a song, Cheating, F/M, Heartbreak, Not A Happy Ending, Sad, Winter Blues, breaking up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 05:02:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16988532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerRaine14/pseuds/SummerRaine14
Summary: Not all heartbreak turns out alright. Not all stories have a happy ending.





	Be Alright

**Author's Note:**

> So, on the Bughead discord @shrugheadjonesthethird/squids asked for an angsty Bughead fic based on a certain song, and then this happened.

_ I look up from the ground  _

_ To see your sad and teary eyes _

_ You look away from me _

 

Betty hated the snow. If there was one consistent thing that everyone knew about Betty Cooper, it was that she wholeheartedly hated the snow. She said it was too white, and other times it made the ground a gross mush that caused her to cringe when she had to walk in it. Betty hated when it was snowing. She hated how wet her clothing would get, and how cold her skin would be no matter how much she covered herself up. 

 

So when Jughead got a call from his girlfriend of three years in mid-December, asking him to meet her at Sweetwater River, he knew instantly something was up. 

 

It was a cold day in Riverdale, and the snow below their feet had become just like ice. Jughead struggled to walk from the car lot by the end of the woods into the area where Betty said she would be waiting for him. She was on the rock at the edge of the water, the same rock where Cheryl Blossom sat when she was found on July 4th years ago. It was a stupid place to find comfort in, really, when so many tragic things had happened, but it was Betty’s calming place. 

 

He walked up to her and smiled, placing a kiss on her forehead before sitting down beside her, “you said you needed to talk?” He asked, his eyes glued on the icy rock underneath them before turning his head back up to look at her. 

 

_ And I see there’s something you’re trying to hide  _

_ And I reach for your hand but it’s cold  _

_ You pull away again  _

_ And I wonder what’s on your mind  _

 

Her eyes were filled with tears and instantly, Jughead was filled with a guilt he didn’t know what to do with. His ability to comfort Betty lately had become lesser, so the only thing he knew he could try was to reach for her hand. The cold air was enough for Betty to pull back before he could even get to her, and she stuffed her hands into the pocket of her pink jacket. 

 

It was the same jacket she wore the night they said those three words for the first time, but this felt nothing like that night in his old trailer. 

 

She just stared at him for a moment, taking in the blue of his eyes before noticing how much they resemble the ice over the river. The blue of his eyes had stopped comforting Betty a long time ago, and ever since then they never looked the same. 

 

Today, they were like nothing more than the frozen water mere feet away from them and she wished it was easier to hate him the way she hated his eyes. But Betty knew Jughead wasn’t his eyes, and he wasn’t his anger or nights at the bar instead of home with him. He was still just Jughead, and despite all the traits she hated  _ about _ him, she couldn’t hate  _ him.  _ He was still the boy that loved her at her worst, even though her worst was now. 

 

_ And then you say to me you made a dumb mistake  _

_ You start to tremble and your voice begins to shake  _

_ You say the cigarettes on the counter weren’t your friend’s  _

_ They were my mate’s  _

_ And I feel the colour draining from my face _

 

Betty’s never been the type of girl to make irrational decisions. Besides that one time she told Archie how she felt about him at a school dance, and then stupid falling in love with a boy she barely knew anymore, it wasn’t like her to do things out of the ordinary. Except, as proven, when it comes to boys. 

 

In the beginning, he was just Sweet Pea, a good friend of Jughead’s from the Serpents, an anti-Northsiders, and the boy with a neck tattoo. He oozed sex appeal, of course, but her heart was with Jughead, so there was just no way Sweet Pea could be anything more than an appealing face and hot body. Right?

 

But then she keeps talking, trembling over her words as her voice is too croak to continue. Something about cigarettes and Jughead’s best friend, when his entire world comes crashing down around him and reality strikes like a lighting bolt. 

 

He remembers a night last week when he got off his shift at the garage earlier than usual, hoping to surprise Betty with some of her favourite’s from Pop’s, he drove over to the Cooper house. He’d been so busy with working they hadn’t actually seen each other in days, and Jughead’s goal was to have a relaxing night. 

 

When he got there, she wasn’t home, so he went into the kitchen to start plating their food. It was as he was pulling out the forks from the bottom of the bag when something fell and he saw them.  _ Pall Mall Red.  _ The cigarettes were a brand that Jughead was more than familiar with, however, he only smoked Blue. When Betty arrived home, he brought up the cigarettes to her and she shook it off as though they didn’t mean anything. 

 

But he would find out a week later they meant everything. 

 

_ And my friend said  _

_ “I know you love her, but it’s over, mate _

_ It doesn’t matter, put the phone away _

_ It’s never easy to walk away, let her go _

_ It’ll be alright” _

 

Jughead couldn’t handle anymore, the idea of her saying the actual words sent his mind to places he couldn’t even imagine, so without looking at her again, he walked away from Sweetwater River and the girl he loved. 

 

He headed straight for Archie’s, knowing how after everything that happened the year before with Veronica, that he would be there to pick up Jughead’s broken pieces. 

 

It seemed no matter how much changed between the two of them, especially with their jobs and attitudes, they always found comfort in each other’s company. Archie may have once been Betty’s friend, but he was Jughead’s best friend. 

 

The two sat on Fred Andrews’ couch with beers in their hands, jughead rested back and his phone in the other. He kept fiddling with it, turning it on and pulling up her contact name before turning the screen off and setting it up, a cycle that felt like it was never going to end until Archie said something. 

 

“You loved her like she’s never been loved, man,” Archie sighed, “in a way, I, or anyone else, never could. But you deserve someone who isn’t going to change themselves when things get rough.”

 

“It just doesn’t make sense, Archie,” Jughead groaned, “this is Betty. How could she do this?” 

 

“Everyone always held her up to a higher standard,” he patted Jughead on the back, “maybe we shouldn’t have.”

 

“What does that even mean?” Jughead leaned forward and placed his beer on the table, “Christmas is in a week, and I just lost the only girl I’ve ever loved.”

 

“Jug, what I’m saying is yeah, this  _ is  _ Betty. Not the perfect and pure Betty, but the woman she is now, and it’s time to let go of who she was. She’s not the same, and neither are you.”

 

_ So I still look back at all the messages you’d sent _

_ And I know it wasn’t right, but it was fucking with my head _

 

Jughead went home not long after, thinking back on what Archie said. He knew his friend was right, people change, and nothing was more obvious than that simple fact between the couple in the past few weeks. 

 

He laid in bed, scrolling through messages, trying to find a sign. He wanted to know when it changed because even if it was over now, he wanted to know if there was ever a possibility of having stopped things from falling apart the way they did. 

 

Everything felt like a sign, now. Looking back on when their messages went from happiness to pain, the long replies turning into one word answers or maybe even hours without one. Sometimes a new topic continued the conversation and sometimes, they didn’t bother to talk at all for another few days. 

 

None of it had felt right back then, but Jughead was so focused on working a stupid job to make ends meet that he didn’t even realize his relationship with a girl who’d stayed their stupid hometown just for him was slipping away. 

 

_ And everything deleted like the past, yeah, it was gone  _

_ And when I touched your face, I could tell you’re moving on _

_ But it's not the fact that you kissed him yesterday _

_ It's the feeling of betrayal, that I just can't seem to shake _

 

He saw her again three days later, he was about to leave Pop’s with a takeout order as she was just walking in. Jughead didn’t prepare for seeing her again, though he knew no matter how many times he pictured it in his head, he would never really be ready. 

 

“Jughead,” Betty breathed out, “hey.” He didn’t bother to say anything back, instead, walking out of the doors like he had planned and headed for his truck. 

 

“Jug!” She yelled after him, running out of the door behind him. They were only a few inches away from each other when Betty finally stopped, standing in front of him and sighing. “I miss you.” 

 

He lifted his hand to place it on her cheek, and for the first time since he could remember, she softened under his touch. 

 

But there was this feeling he couldn’t seem to shake. It didn’t matter what she said to him now, this woman in front of him wasn’t his Betty. She was no longer the girl he’d fallen in love with so many years ago, and when he looked at her, all he saw was the woman who betrayed him. The woman who broke his heart. 

 

“What do you want, Betty?” He sighed, sliding his hand off of her cheek and ignoring the emptiness that pooled inside of him. 

 

“I want to know if it’s over, if we’re over.” Jughead almost scoffed at that, how could they not be over? Their relationship was falling apart long before Betty’s lips touched another man’s. “It’s almost Christmas and we’ve been together for so long-”

 

“Were together.” Jughead snarled. “We broke up long before you cheated on me, Betts, so I’m not going to stand here and pretend it’s all your fault. But just because it’s Christmas time doesn’t change anything. You and Me? We’re done,” he looked at her with pain and whispered, “I love you but I need to let you go.” 

 

Betty barely had time to protest before he was in his truck, driving off with nothing left of Betty but the image of her in his rearview mirror. He turned up the radio to silence out the sound of Betty’s voice in his head and as he listened to the words, his heartbreak hurt just a little less. 

 

_ It'll be alright _

_ It'll be alright _

_ It'll be alright _

_ It'll be alright _

_ It'll be alright _

 

**_-fin_ **

 

**Author's Note:**

> My original plan was for a happy ending but the more I wrote this, the less happy it was getting and I am so so sorry.
> 
> Follow me on tumblr @srainebuggie and tell me your thoughts (but please be nice) below!


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